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U.S. Federal Communications Commission has given approval to Apple partner, AT&T, to move forward with previously announced purchase of mobile provider Leap Wireless. Under terms of the announcement made back in July of 2013, AT&T will purchase all Leap Wireless stocks and network properties for $15/share with cash. This successful deal now amounts to $1.3 billion. As part of a way to please competition watchdogs, AT&T has informed FCC that they will be offering Apple’s iPhone 5c to Cricket customers after the deal is complete.

For the proposed deal, regulators looked at wireless spectrum analysis, antitrust concerns, public interest and other aspects of the proposal according to the FCC’s full transaction order. The buyout was expected to be finalized somewhere between January and March, awaiting government approval on the purchase.

The buyout of Leap gives AT&T spectrum in the PCS and AWS bands- both of which, are ‘largely complementary’ to the telecom’s existing licenses. Leap currently has roughly 96 million customers spread over 35 states and spectrum licenses serving 137 million customers, as of the filing date.

I think your info is a little wrong. There is no way Leap has almost 100 MILLION customers. That's more than Sprint and T-Mobile combined, and almost as much as AT&T and Verizon. Are we saying that Leap is now the number 3 U.S. carrier? And now Sprint and T-Mobile are 4th and 5th, respectively?